Why shade is so important in hot climates

Wanted to live in the high desert country of Sedona. Also wanted to grow food and flowers. To grow here I knew I would have to have lots of shade so I chose a property with lots of big trees. Turns out I need even more shade if I want stuff to grow really well and I don't want to use so much water!  A lot more shade! It's screaming hot here 8 months of the year. 105*+!

And to make it even more challenging as soon as I started to grow food every bug in a 20 mile radius showed up to chow down! I created a huge buffet in the desert where almost no food grows! I got a handle on most of them after a couple of years but not the damned pill bugs! Wood Lice! They eat everything I do and then some. They are relentless and don't leave me anything! And procreate constantly! I finally realized that I can't put down any mulch around my vegies. None! Most of my flowers and shrubs are O.K. But the minute I put mulch anywhere near my food they move in and then they devour it! I learned I had to keep my big pile of leaves on the other side of the yard to rot down and turn into good soil which I can then spread around. And whenever I plant out my seedlings in bare dirt I have to spray Spinosad every 3-4 days for a couple of weeks until the damned pill bugs temporarily give up.

A few years ago I finally got their population down a lot and I thought I had things under control. I thought I had conquered them. No, I didn't1 I didn't conquer them, they trained me!! Oh well, a girls' gotta eat. But even last week I planted out 10 beautiful golden celery seedlings in bare dirt and I forgot to spray. The next morning every one was gone. Just a damned pile of pill bugs walking around in circles looking for more. And I got comfrey root cuttings last fall. They have spent the winter in pots in my greenhouse. They are/were so beautiful. I planted some of them out last week too but nobody told me that the freaking pill bugs would eat comfrey!

Since I can't put down any mulch I have been creating more and more shade. Now I'm planting lots of semi-dwarf fruit trees. I got 10 this year but I need many, many more! And in the meantime I am using all the artificial shade that I can. I use shade cloth and old screen material and sheets that I got from a local thrift store. And I have to admit it is working pretty well.

Picture # 1- I am growing cabbages under a tunnel. But the shade cloth isn't long enough to cover the whole thing. Cabbages at each end are in full sun. Picture # 2- This is what shade can do for your plants. I wish all the cabbages were as big and beautiful as the ones in the center. That's what shade can do for you in a hot climate. Just thought I'd share.

I might be an old dog but I can still learn a thing or 2. Happy gardening everyone.

From; How-to-Keep-Slater-Numbers-Under-Control

Dealing with slaters is mainly a case of containing their numbers and diverting them away from your most delicate plants.
Here are some ideas.
Grow at-risk plants like strawberries in containers, raised from the ground with no leaves or fruit touching the earth.
Slaters can climb but usually avoid it and adding an extra obstacle between them and their food is often enough of a deterrent.
Mulch offers an ideal slater habitat, so don't use it around tender plants until they've matured and toughened up a little.
Always keep seed bed soil as neat and tidy as possible, to remove hiding places.
And when you do use mulch, rake it over lightly once a week or so, ideally on a sunny day. This will disturb the damp conditions the insects love and encourage them to move elsewhere.
Use collars around tender stems to make a physical barrier. Plastic drinks bottles with the ends cut off are ideal, and can be easily removed later.
Scatter halved citrus fruit around your veggie patches, with the fleshy side down. T
hese will act as decoys, attracting slaters to their dark, damp, and food-filled undersides, and you can then collect and dispose of the bugs in bulk.
Another decoy idea is to fill old food containers with potato peelings or other enticing scraps which provide a home and larder in one.
If you have the space, keeping a chook or two will help control slater numbers.
The best way to use poultry assistance is to let them clear empty veggie beds in between sowings, when they can gain valuable protein from the insects without also demolishing your crops.
As a last resort, most types of organic snail pellets will also have an impact on slater numbers.
But remember that even organic pellets can harm plenty of innocent insect bystanders too.

Individual slaters are completely harmless and contribute plenty to your garden.
But you can have too much of a good thing, and if the bugs find your garden too comfortable then their numbers will soar.
By using a mixture of these discouraging tactics and you can host a sensibly sized population which brings only benefits.

John, I loved your reply. Thank you so much. I was hoping to hear from my friends down under.  I appreciate all of your suggestions so much. I have tried each of the things you mentioned and a lot more and I still use some of them on occasion. I'm now a little bit of an expert on these little freaks of nature. But the problem is almost ALL of my plants are at risk. If I eat it so do they. And they don't want to leave me any! So far the one and only thing they won't eat are my tomatoes.

I seldom use containers because they dry out so very fast. But I do occasionally grow radishes in them because that's the only way I'll ever get any.  And these slaters don't mind climbing one bit. They go right up the legs of a metal patio table so I am always watching for them. And you can call me Ms. Neat and Tidy. I have learned my garden hygiene! I have used collars on occasion and they have sometimes worked but they don't work on members of the squash family or anything else that is lying in the dirt. And I water with a hose so the collars soon get filled with dirt no matter how careful I am.

I don't have the time or money for chickens or fowl but I spent a few months many years ago researching this. Thought I might try it. Most people online said that maybe 1 out of every 20 birds they owned would eat just some of the pill bugs. But I would love to have some chicks or ducks. The organic snail pellets called Sluggo are made out of iron phosphate. I used Sluggo Plus which is iron phosphate and spinosad which works well. It is just cheaper to buy the Spinosad in concentrated form.

Citrus and potatoes are 2 things I hardly ever eat. All citrus is pretty expensive here. The organic stuff is and the non-organic is heavily sprayed. But in a really tight spot when I had to try every trick in the book it worked well enough in a pinch. But I'd have to eat crates of citrus to cover my garden.  But I hadn't heard about potatoes. I will give them a try. Just hope I don't gain back that 25 pounds I lost this winter!!

And so far keeping all the mulch far away and spraying with Spinosad is the best and easiest solution. Yes, I know they can contribute to my garden in their own way. But I already have plenty of earwigs and cockroaches and tons of other bugs that can do the same thing without eating all my stuff! Thank you so much for your suggestions. I hope you were impressed with my cabbages.

A couple of chooks may work well, and be in budget.
Trust me, experiment before others tell you it will not work, find out for yourself.
Many years ago I discovered the world is full of naysayers, then I just read about things and try them.
- I have built rockets and blown them up
- I have grafted 2 motorcycle engines together to race
- I have jumped off cliffs with just a bit of rope
- I have done a lot things I might not do again, but somebody had to test it first!
So just do it!

In Tucson, people typically don't have a lawn but put down rock as mulch and plant a few things with drip irrigation. I have been to Sedona a few times and felt the weather was cooler and wetter than Tucson/Phoenix. Do you think some rocks will help retaining moisture and keeping soil cool?

Helpful ideas here everyone; thanks for the fascinating read.
My favorite way to keep pill bugs, sow bugs, grasshoppers, spiders, centipedes, ants and other bugs in check are native toads. If you put a small pond in your garden where the toads can lay their many eggs, the toads will come out of the desert and make themselves at home in your beautiful microclimate. Good luck with your desert gardens Debbie Ann.

Dear John, Your reply was awesome. I almost never have anybody cheering me on... or even agreeing with me about most things! I thank you so much for your encouragement. But I'm not ready for birds yet. They sound like they are pretty time consuming, you need to know a lot about them and they can be expensive to feed. Been in a similar position a few too many times now.  And I will totally admit that in my 3rd year I grew a 33 dollar cucumber! Just one! And I have cried buckets of tears when my favorite tomato plant died. Can't imagine a bird dying in my care. I lost some goldfish once that I was babysitting and it has scarred me forever!

I relish in your support and I really, really hope that you will stay away from cliffs and stop playing with rope!! BUT I TRULY DO HOPE YOU LIKED MY CABBAGES!

Hi May, yes it is a bit cooler here than in Tuscon. And, if you've ever seen any of my other posts I use rocks everywhere. I've posted lots of pictures. Every hole and bed that I dig has given me many tons of rocks over the years. And I mean that literally, not figuratively. I just looked up my old posts because there are lots of pictures but a lot of my posts aren't there any more even though I went back to the very first post I ever created. But I use rocks in terracing and in little air wells around trees and to create swales and direct water. But my best solution now is I am artificially creating a whole lot more shade right now. Among-st other things I've mentioned I'm using a lot of white sheets that I bought at a thrift store. But as soon as I get the chance I am going to tie dye them all. That will be fun.

And I would love to have toads. Been trying to entice them here for awhile now. Just have lots and lots of little lizards which eat all of the snails.

Thank you for your suggestions everyone. How do you like my cabbages?

Debbie Ann, do you know that some people try and grow cabbages.
I dont know what they do with them, but they can be sooo, OCD about them its hard to deal with.
BUT your cabbages may be the best cabbages west of Tucson.
I cant say I have seen them with quite that elegant shade of green and I can only imagine in part its the work of the slaters that has helped that.
Maybe your green thumb has assisted a lot as well.
I dont think I have seen such a great display of Hot Cabbages like that before.
Well done with them.

Debbie Ann,

. I almost never have anybody cheering me on...

I was the guardian for my granddaughter for 17 years, she is now 20.
I live a very masculine life, building hot rods, racing motorcycles and playing on a hobby farm.
I also run my own business.
I decided to show her how to get on and I encouraged her always to try things out, even if she was hesitant;
I was not like a 'footy mum' pushing her to do better than others.
- debating
- holding conversation with adults
- cooking
- driving cars
- singing
- playing sports
- repairing her own motorcycle
- camping
- boxing
- theatre group
- serving in my Hardware store
I took her to sports events where women excelled
- Cycle racing where there were 7 world champions
- women's go kart racing events

I wanted her to feel doing stuff was something she could just do, without restriction from anybody.
She is pretty resilient today, but at 15 she was a worry and I hope it was all the fun stuff we did together that pulled her back.
So I am happy to always encourage women because I see so many who are discouraged.
My poor partner today suffers because I encourage her to try things, stand up to bullies at work etc.

Well my goodness, what a wonderful way to be and to live your life. Your granddaughter is a very lucky girl! Encouragement gives someone such a terrific feeling! Thank you so much  for sending some of it my way. It feels great! Now I'm going to take some potato peels out to the garden and see how it goes. Have a great day.

So Debbie, can you talk about the good things that have happened lately?

Yes John, YOU are the best thing that has happened to me lately.

When I first read your post I so appreciated the advice you gave me about pill bugs/slaters. My first reaction was yes, I've tried all of these things dozens and dozens of times. (Except for the potatoes. I didn't remember anyone mentioning potatoes before and until this year I had never grown any potatoes. I thought it was so odd that you specifically mentioned potatoes.) I was so grateful because you didn't just say this or that worked for you once.... You went above and beyond that! You obviously took the time to research the issue! I see people on this site every day that go out of their way to research and investigate an issue for someone and try to help them and they never get thanked for it. You are all unsung heroes! And I wanted to say thank you loud and clear! https://permies.com/t/181618/JOHN-DALEY-HERO#1428941

You have no idea what a huge gift you have given me. I'd learned to deal with other bugs, fungus, bacterial wilts, nematodes, severe drought conditions and a whole host of other things. I win some fights and lose some. But I have been fighting this losing battle against these demon bugs for 11 years! I kept telling myself each year that it is getting a little better. If I just keep at it that I will eventually get the population down to a manageable level. I kept going to plan B and plan C and plan D etc. But this year they have once again exploded in numbers! And I have no idea why. And just to make matters worse 3 years ago grasshoppers showed up to join the party.

These last couple of months I've thought many times about just giving up. Not giving up gardening but giving up gardening here! Obviously, some people can 'green the desert' but it looks/looked like I was not going to be one of those people. I had planned on spending all my final days here in this beautiful garden I had tried to create but I began to think I should stop being so stubborn and pig headed and admit defeat! Now is a darned good time to sell a property here in the U.S.

But I just planted my summer crops! And lots of good people have given me great suggestions for my screaming hot spot! And I've been giving some serious thought to getting some ducks! Thanks to you I have some hope again. This might be the solution I have been hunting for or it might be just a temporary band-aid. But I'm still here and ready to fight the good fight another day. Thank you again.
Sincerely,
Debbie

This reply will probably not help your problem, and for that I'll apologize up front.

But I think it is worth considering, as a wide angle of perspective can help show new paths and courses of action.

I've been enjoying reading your posts for this very reason, your climate is so different from mine, in one axis (the water one) we're opposites. But temperature wise not too far apart. It breaks 40 C (105 F) here in the summer sun (with 90% humidity sometimes to boot!). So anyway reading your posts gives me some perspective I wouldn't have otherwise.

I wonder...

What are the bugs doing for the biome? It seems like nature is trying to reassert balance to the area in the short term by leveling the spike in organically available nutrients. What happens next? The bug population soars, moving the nutrients up the food chain. What gets them next? If something eats them, those nutrients go further up the chain, but if the bugs just die out over time then the nutrients return directly to the soil where they die, possibly creating an even more rich soil ecosystem because of decaying animal matter. I've read from Redhawk that decaying animal matter more directly creates humus than simply plant matter, so perhaps in the long run this spike of nutrients really is greening the desert. The problem though is that on that time scale you don't get any of the benefits of it...

That whole paragraph is just amateur conjecture, but it is where my mind goes. I wonder too if there's anything actionable in it. Maybe not... What does a pile of pill bug carcasses do for your soil though? Maybe you can collect them...

Hi L,  No apology necessary! A person should look at every aspect to a problem and not focus on any one thing. And to stand back and 'look at the forest as opposed to the trees' is a smart and rational thing. I do that all the time but in this instance I can't find any helpful insights.

Pill bugs are crustaceons, they are related to crabs and shrimp and breath through gills. They survive everywhere around the world. It is super hot here and super dry. I have included a picture of the property next to mine. You can see that some of the weeds and vegetation are still green and barely alive but most of the cactus and weeds and plants are just dead and dry. The pill bugs manage to survive here in smaller numbers by living under and around the dead wood and plants.

I created an oasis in the desert so they have multiplied like crazy (I believe they can/do give birth every 5-6 weeks.) You said.... “What happens next? The bug population soars, moving the nutrients up the food chain. What gets them next? If something eats them, those nutrients go further up the chain, but if the bugs just die out over time then the nutrients return directly to the soil where they die, possibly creating an even more rich soil ecosystem because of decaying animal matter.”

Nothing gets them next as far as I can tell. Nothing here eats them alive or dead. The food chain appears to end. I have turned over a rock or hunk of wood and found a few hundred many times. I step on them and that's the end of the story. Nothing comes along to eat their carcasses like they do other animals. No ants or anything. They quickly dehydrate and get crispy in the sun and soon turn to dust as far as I can tell. I don't know what happens if they die underground but looking at the picture I provided it does not seem so very helpful to the local vegetation. And they aren't leaving me any humus here. They are the size of a grain of rice so I won't be collecting them. But you asked very good questions and I appreciate your interest.